A need exists, especially in urban areas, and most especially inside the home, to easily dispose of pet waste products, e.g., urine and fecal matter. Some pets eliminate their waste products outside the home. Many urban areas have laws which require collection and disposal of solid pet wastes. House-broken animals, such as cats, are trained into the habit of urinating and defecating in a specially provided litter box. Similarly, untrained and caged animals, such as guinea pigs, urinate and defecate on the floor of their cage, often in the same floor area of the cage. Consequently, animal owners, pet owners, veterinarians, and laboratory personnel place absorbent materials on a floor area of their litter box or cage to collect the animal's urine and feces. It is periodically necessary, to eliminate or reduce odors, for example, to physically separate animal waste material and soiled litter from the unsoiled litter.
Litter scoops currently on the market have some disadvantages. Devices which resemble a slotted spoon are inconvenient due to the potential for spillage and the need to have nearby a waste receptacle to minimize spillage of scooped animal waste during transport of the waste from the area where the animal deposits the waste to the waste receptacle. Particular difficulty arises when the waste receptacle is a bag and must be held open with a single hand, while scooping the animal waste with the slotted spoon using another hand.
One example of a scoop-like device for use in cleaning pet litter is disclosed in Halls U.S. Pat. No. DES 255,951 ('951). The '951 scoop device includes a housing with slots formed in a flat bottom portion, and the device requires agitation to perform separation of litter from waste and, accordingly, can easily result in spillage. Further, transfer of waste to a receptacle appears to require emptying the scoop a plurality of times, again increasing the chance of spillage.